Danville High School's rendition of "The Carol Burnett Show" wasn't just an opportunity for students to showcase their acting talents. It was a much-preferred fund-raising alternative as well.

"I am so tired of selling chocolate bars and candy, stuff that's just a waste of money and that you don't really make any money off of either," Janetta Carney, DHS drama teacher said. "So we decided to do a dinner theatre to raise money. We have to raise funds for anything that we do or if we need new equipment. This year, we chose this as our major fund-raiser."

The students performed the play Saturday night in a dinner theatre format. Carney said the audience was larger than expected, with more than 200 parents and community members attending.

Monday, the play was performed for high school and elementary students, and another community performance followed Monday evening.

Carney said the response from audience members was outstanding.

"The drama program has always done a high school play every year," she said. "But the response we got after the dinner theatre was this was the best performance we've had in years. The community and the students really enjoyed it."

Work on the play began in January, Carney said, when auditions were held for the parts in the four sketches, taken from the original television show.

"I held auditions in early January, and we've been working on this from then until now," Carney said.

Auditions were open for seventh through 12th graders, and Carney said about 15 students auditioned. The students read pieces and various parts Carney selected from the play.

"We started rehearsals toward the end of January, and we've been rehearsing from 6-8 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday except Spring Break week," Carney said. "The week after Spring Break, we practiced Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and Saturday we had our dinner theatre.

"It's been a huge commitment from all the students and their families."

Although Carney said the students who auditioned for the play did not have to be drama students, she said the drama students were involved with the play, either in acting roles or in behind-the-scenes roles such as set design and construction and serving at the dinner theatre.

"Some of the cast members are drama or speech students, but most of them have been in drama before," Carney said. "Five of the students are also forensics students."

Carney said she got the idea for a dinner theatre when she saw a similar performance at Dover two years ago.

"I really liked it, and I just expanded from that," she said. "It's been on my mind for the whole school year, and we finally started talking about it and getting the kids ready."

The four sketches the students performed were "Passion on 10th Avenue," performed by Jasmine Balch, Clay Patterson, Akoshua Davis and Kayla Coppedge; "Hospital Nudge," performed by Amanda Henson, Nick Patterson and Clay Patterson; "Bonnie and Clod," performed by Heather Gooch and Robert Pool; and "Gone with the Breeze," performed by Jasmine Balch, Nick Patterson and Clay Patterson.

"At the end of the program, we do a traditional curtain call," Carney said. "Everyone comes out and sings the song Carol Burnett sang at end of her show. Then they tugged on their left ears."

Carney said she thought the students enjoyed the play because of Burnett's connection to the area.

"Carol Burnett spent a lot of her childhood in this area," she said. "So it was fun for them to do something about her. She visited this area a couple of years ago, and we invited her to come to the performance, but she wasn't able to come to the show. She sent several autographed pictures, and we have baskets we're giving away that contain an autographed picture of her and a video from the original show."

The format of the play follows that of the television show, according to Carney. She said the students performed a sketch, then student Haley Patterson provided musical entertainment before the next skit.

Carney said the audience reaction following each skit was wonderful and enhanced the atmosphere for the actors.

"The students were very excited," Carney said. "The best reaction we had was Saturday night after the dinner theatre. We had an older audience that knew about Carol Burnett. But the elementary kids loved it, too.

"The students loved getting the response from the audience. It made them feel really proud of what they had accomplished."

Carney said the set, designed and constructed under the guidance of Brian and Johna Balch, was also impressive.

"I was the director, Johna was the assistant director and worked on the design of the set, and Brian did our set for us," Carney said. "They took my ideas and made them work."

"We've decided that if everything goes well, we're going to continue doing a dinner theatre program as our fund-raiser," Carney said. "The money is raised for both our Drama Club and Forensics Club."

Carney said the money would be used to purchase sound equipment and a sound system.

But, regardless of how much money was raised, Carney said the experience was both fun and rewarding.

"It's been such a success," she said. "We've had nothing but compliments. People were so impressed with how great the kids were and the set design. I just want to brag on the kids. They did a fantastic job. We're definitely going to do this again."